Videoconferencing app, Zoom, has announced that it is bringing its Live Transcription feature to free users.

For a while now, paid users have had access to the service, which gives them a subtitle-style transcription of text on their screen.

According to a blog post, Zoom says free users will soon also have the option to add automated, AI-powered closed-captioning to their meetings.

“Now we are excited to announce that we are looking to take our efforts a step further and are working towards making automatic closed captioning —what we refer to as “Live Transcription”— available to all of our users in the fall of 2021.”

While live transcription is set to start rolling out to all accounts in the last quarter of 2021, you can apply for early access through this request form.

The Live Transcriptions feature is still in active development, and currently only supports English language.

It is, however, not sure how long it will take for early access to be granted, but here is how you can enable Zoom’s Live Transcription, once it is available to you:

• Sign in to the Zoom website.

• Go to Settings > Meeting.

• Turn on “Closed Caption.”

Note: If you see the feature but can’t turn it on, you may need to request permission from the Zoom group or account admin.

• Turn on “Enable live transcription service to show transcript on the side panel in-meeting.”

Once this part is done, all that is left is to turn on Live Transcriptions while the meeting is ongoing.

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How to turn on Live Transcript during a meeting you host

• Ensure that Live Transcription is enabled using the steps above.

• Open Zoom and start/join a new meeting.

• Click “Closed caption” or “Live Transcript” from the call controls.

• Select “Enable Auto-Transcription”.

As soon as Live Transcript is turned on, you can continue your call as normal.

The AI system in the app will automatically recognize the words said, and type it out on your screen. However, there are chances that the transcription might be not be 100% accurate.

According to Zoom’s support page, the following is capable of affecting the accuracy of the Live Transcriptions:

1. Background noise.
2. Volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice.
3. Speaker’s proficiency with the English language.
4. Lexicons and dialects specific to a geography or community.

While Zoom’s transcription service might be a brilliant idea, it is not the first app to implement the Live Transcriptions feature.

Google Meet has similar feature in its Videoconferencing app, and it supports English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.